The England and Ireland tour: part 1

A couple of things before we get going that I don’t mind telling you now (since it has a happy ending) I waited along time to commit to the Lancaster Music Festival while trying to decide what the length of this tour was going to be. If I took the gigs that left me with three weeks to fill, and by the time I was thinking about this (early August) it was by all practical booking standards too late. In order for me to be able to do this I had to accomplish three things: 1. I had to make enough money to get there (airfare, car rental, rent and bills before I left) 2. I had to make enough money to get by (food, petrol, car rental etc. etc.) 3. Finally, as I was arriving home on the 2nd of November, I would have had to have made enough money while there to be able to pay my bills here when I returned. It was a very tall order, and one that literally woke me up in the middle of the night, my stomach a knot of fear. Which is why so much of the text of this trip will involve talking about money. But the reoccurring lesson of my life these many years is that there is value in not worrying. Do what you love; the rest will work itself out.

Lesson 1: the airport
Because of the three weeks, the variety of shows, the ton (or tonne) of equipment I was bringing AND the merchandise, I have five bags to either check or carry on. 1. My dulcimers (three in a gig bag) 2. Clothes in a rolling case 3. Laptop bag (getting smart phone soon) 4. Pedals and such in a flight case (I was borrowing a guitar and rolling with the loop show) 5. The box of merchandise (mostly books). I had looked into shipping the books but the cost was nearly $100, I knew my second(!) bag on Delta would cost me and additional $50 (which is total BS) but also another $50 was cheaper than mail (or so I assumed) and I could be reasonably sure that it would get there.

It turns out bag number 3 is an additional $200 dollars (meaning my flight at this point was about to cost me well over $1,000) Fortunately, really fortunately, for some reason the outside check in guy was allowed to check my third bag outside. So he took the flight case and the cardboard merch box, at the inside counter (a guy tied to check me in via kiosk but that too didn’t work) The lady at the counter told me the price of the third bag, and then watched as the blood drained from my face. After a moment, she says “just take it onboard.” I point to my gig bag (which I’m wearing like a back pack and say “but I have this.” She folds my boarding pass into my passport and snaps it shut, shoving it across the counter she says. “Look, I just do it. I won’t see any of that money anyway.” I thank her profusely and spent the rest of the trip worried that I’m gonna get stop each time I board the plane. Of course, there was no need to worry, everyone assumed because I had made it that far, it was within my rights to bring as much crap as I wanted onboard.

# Is going to Amsterdam {but only for an hour} last post till the U.K.
3:58 PM Oct 8th from txt
This was the last text message I sent, I had just plopped into my seat in Detroit. I thought I only had a few minutes to get to my plane, but instead I had an hour (time change stuff and I read the ticket wrong) I found my plane, and the passengers then ran off to grab a quick bite. When I returned, there was no plane and no passengers. Well, there were three actually. Two passengers and a flight attendant all haranguing this other airline guy as to where the plan had went. By the time I got to the new gate they were already boarding, but again, no point in worrying it takes an hour to board an international flight.

# is safely in the UK, but not his luggage. Maybe the 12:30 flight.
4:14 AM Oct 9th from web
Unfortunately, the plane change in Detroit made the flight leave 30 minutes late, meaning that the connecting flight in Amsterdam was a mere 30 minutes after I arrived (thank God I did not need to recollect my luggage like they make you do in the states) I had just enough time to go from my plane to the gate where my flight was supposed to be, then back to the gate where my flight actually was, and to sign a waiver saying that I understood my luggage would not be coming off the plane when I arrived in Manchester.

I hung around the airport for an hour or so in the hopes that it would come in with the next flight from Amsterdam (it didn’t) I also discovered that I had brought the wrong phone to the UK (I have one that is unlocked for when I travel internationally) so I bought an hour of internet service and attempted to find the unlock code online. You get five tries; I failed five times, and ended up with a brick. Later Ben would loan me an old phone of his and I’d buy a Vodaphone pay-as-you go sim card.

# Playing a show in Lancaster at 8:00 PM today at Park Hotel
http://feeds.artistdata.com... 11:07 AM Oct 9th from ArtistData
Not have all my luggage turned out to be a good thing when I got on the train from Manchester airport to Lancaster. While my train car was completely empty when I had gotten on, it was completely filled at the next stop, with lots of these people going to my final destination. If I had had all my crap, people wouldn’t have been able to sit. Not cool at all on an hour and a half train ride.

I got off the train, and being unable to make the pay phone work, just started randomly walking fortunately it was in the right direction, toward the town center. I saw a pub called the John O’Gaunt that was advertising live music that afternoon, I thought, “surely these people will have Ben’s phone number and I can call him and let him know I’m here”. Turns out I didn’t have to: he was sitting at the bar.

That evening his band, The Convulsions, me and a band called Red Gap from the Isle of Mann where playing the starting evening at the Park Hotel. Ben warned me in advance that it was gonna be a thin night, and it certainly was. So much so that two songs in I unplugged and drug my seat out to the middle of the room to play totally acoustic. Despite having brought all my “kit” as the English would say. It was the first of many lessons I was about to learn about how little gear I need to do a great show.

# Playing a show in Lancaster at 8:00 PM today at various venues http://feeds.artistdata.com... 11:00 AM Oct 10th from ArtistData
Four half-hour sets along St. Georges Quay.
1:30 – 2pm Maritime Museum
3:30 – 4pm George and Dragon Pub
8.30 – 9pm Wagon & Horses
10.30 – 11pm Three Mariners

# 4 show recap: 1. Good 2. Sucked 3. Great 4. FREAKING AMAZING! Turns out I can be funny in English too. Today, just 2 shows & an after party. 4:59 AM Oct 11th from web
My day started off in the Maritime museum in a room that looked like the inside of a ship (or if you prefer, the belly of a whale) I played a totally acoustic set to a bunch of folks, kids and adults and may have even made a young dulcimer convert (I always offer to let kids try out the instrument after a set).

After that it was on to the George and Dragon where I played for old men and their dogs. Literally, just a bunch of punters there for their Saturday afternoon pint during their Saturday afternoon dog walk. Nobody clapped. The only exception was a Greek woman and her child; she was using the festival to teach her son about different forms of music. Halfway through my first song, he turns to her and in a great stage whisper says, “is this folk music”

At the time I remember thinking “That’s a good question kid”

I walked back into town to grab a bite to eat and to catch Ben’s band the Convulsions play their brand of punchy-blues, I caught him during a set break which was just enough time for him to tell me that the courier had shown up with my luggage but since he was onstage he wasn’t able to leave it with anyone at the pub. He had been ion contact with the courier (who was currently in the north of England) and he would, he swore, set this. Somewhere in the middle of this mess I found a sim card for my phone and could finally make calls and set up text to twitter to restart the updates. Ben called to meet me for dinner and we had an amazing meal at the Robert Gillow, which took me straight to 6:30 the time I was supposed to start my next set. Ben offered to buy dinner if I cabbed to the next gig and I did. Lancaster has the absolutely fastest arriving cabs in the western hemisphere; I think I was in the venue by 6:34

As I was setting up to play, a man comes up to me and says that he had seen me at the Maritime Museum and had come to see me again, bringing all his friends in the process. Then Ben showed up with my luggage (which included my CDs). Sometimes omens are good things; it was a very good show.

Then I walked down the street (far more difficult given the amount of crap I now had. Fortunately a bunch of people getting out of their car and heading to my next show offered to help me carry my stuff (how this stuff happens to me, I have no idea, that’s the value of not worrying).

I arrived in enough time to see the Keelers finish their set of Sea Chanteys reminding me how much I actually do like them and how far removed from the “maritime music” I actually was. I set up and began to play and most people quieted down to listen except for one woman at the very first table (of course) who was talking very loudly. So loudly that another patron leaned over and asked her to keep it down. Afterwards I riffed with the loud talker about how she shouldn’t feel bad I’m usually that person. This little bit of riffing had the effect of focusing the room and from that point the audience and I were hand in glove. It was a dialogue between the audience, and me. I sent out the music and they would respond in kind, both sides pushing each other higher. It's sounds silly and new-agey to say this but it was more like a dance than performance (except had I actually been dancing someone would have gotten hurt). A great show, a great audience and once again the help of a red-headed angel (thank you Nami) to help me carry my crap to the after party.
# Playing a show in Lancaster at 1:00 PM today at various http://feeds.artistdata.com... 11:02 AM Oct 11th from ArtistData

Back again at the George and Dragon at 2pm and again at the 3 Mariners at 6pm

# had a perfect day yesterday. Not one great thing, just dozens of little ones that grew into a feeling of true bliss. Thank you Lancaster. 10:21 AM Oct 12th from web

So the first part of this perfect day was the George and Dragon, which I chose to walk to (I don’t remember why I thought that was a good idea) Unlike yesterday’s apathy fest, today the room was completely full. It was a quiet and responsive audience and if I had any doubts about why they were there, the place was completely empty ten minutes after my set was over. Well empty save for one person, a professor from the local university who had lived for a time in Chattanooga (!?!?) I ended up chatting with them until it was time for my evening show. It was a great intellectual conversation about everything from Mountain Top Removal Coal mining to performance poetry. And let me clarify “intellectual” most of my friends are very smart, and we have very intelligent conversations, but this was a conversation of the depth that I had gotten used to in Grad School and not really had since. I forgot how much I missed it.

I chose to keep the second show low-key playing next to the bar and talking, not selling shtick to the audience. It went as well as I could have and I walked to (yet another) after party, realizing as I did that I was felling an emotion I hadn’t felt in long, long time; the bliss of contentment. It was as near perfect a day as I think I’ll ever see. So I mean it when I say thank you Lancaster.

Next up, Manchester and the world.